There are all sorts of medical professionals that need specific supplies in order to do their job, from midwives and vets to eye doctors and general practitioners. Therefore, if you’ve seen some high-quality and affordable pieces of equipment such as the ones presented in this article and you are thinking about putting two and two together, then you are not wrong at all.
Even though large medical supply companies definitely play an important role in this industry, it’s not impossible for a small independent business to find a way to be successful as well. After all, this is a million dollars line of business and medical equipment is being sold every year around the entire country.
Of course, just as with any other type of business out there, if you want to be successful you have to start with the planning and research part first. It’s crucial to understand who your customers are, where they are located, and what influences their purchasing decision.
Plus, if you really want to compete with larger companies, you have to do your best to understand what customers need. Depending on the answer to these questions and on the results of your research, the first decision you will need to make is whether you open a retail store or you focus your activity online.
Where to find the right clients?
In today’s economy, having an online presence is essential, even if an active e-shop is not established yet, so consider working on this part from the very beginning. One of the things that every customer wants is expertise, so you will want to know everything there is about the equipment that you are selling.
If possible, you should consider becoming an independent sales consultant as well, as this way you can represent various manufacturers and learn a lot in the process. If you are thinking about getting into large medical equipment, then your main focus will be health centers and hospitals.
You can start selling your products in such facilities either by soliciting or by using the more complex tender process that hospitals use to get the lowest prices when they need to replace equipment. However, if you are looking for smaller equipment to sell, that is also easier to handle, then you can also look at online retail as a very important source of income.
There are multiple benefits to online retail, the most important one being that you are not set within a certain area, and you can sell your products around the country and (why not?) around the world. However, if you want to be as relevant as possible, you can target a certain niche, such as dentists, home health aides, or nursing homes.
If you identify a profitable niche, you can specialize the entire range of services and eventually end up making a larger profit than if you would target everyone. But this is also a matter of trial and error, especially if you are not familiar with this industry altogether. Before placing any investment, you may want to talk to specialists and doctors and understand what the needs are.
Legal requirements
Given that we’re talking about medical equipment, it’s also mandatory to check with the public health department in your area if there are any licenses that you need to obtain in order to sell medical equipment. Of course, you also need to investigate any kind of special taxes that might apply or resale permit that might be necessary.
If you are planning on having a large inventory, you have to look for a suitable warehouse, and usually, these need to be temperature-controlled. Plus, you need to ensure the right level of hygiene, especially if you sell special equipment that might be subject to any particular legal requirements.
